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Disclaimer/Philosophy (Please read)

This site is meant to serve the general public and clinician with a resource that presents current evidence regarding diagnosis and treatment of a variety of orthopedic conditions. It is by no means meant to replace the need for medical evaluation for significant pain or injury. If you are having pain of any kind it is still highly recommended that you be evaluated by a medical professional. This site may be helpful resource for variety of healthcare professionals including medical doctors, physical therapists, and chiropractors. All too often, what begins as a small problem gradually becomes more severe in duration of symptoms and pain intensity. What many people fail to realize is that we all have our own weaknesses that are unique to each individual person, and at some point they cross a thresh hold where they are stressed just beyond what they can handle. Instead of adapting to meet the demand, that muscle or joint becomes painful. This leads into further weakness through avoidance of certain activities and problems in surrounding areas that are working overtime to make up for a missing link in the chain. The exercise recommendations and examination techniques provided through this site are meant to expose these common weak links and provide a safe means to identify and recondition weak muscle groups. Then gradual progression into functional movements is incorporated in the progressions with emphasis on proper mechanics and breaking bad habits that being in pain will usually create.

Some rules that I generally give to patients regarding exercise:

You should not experience pain during any of these movements. Your brain is the control center of your body and it can send the warning signal of pain or it can send the healthy activate muscle signal. If you are having pain, your brain can not also activate muscles appropriately and this becomes the beginning of altered movement and muscle recruitment patterns that feed into problems. For all of these exercises there should be a range that you can stop short of pain, but if that is not working DON’T do that exercise. There is no perfect system for everybody so you have to do some thinking for yourself. Does this feel like it is making me tired with healthy muscle burn/stretch (this is good) or am I feeling an increase in soreness in muscle/joint (not good)?

As you do an exercise a small amount of discomfort is alright IF:

It is very mild maybe a 2/10 on the pain scale

It is NOT getting worse…maybe it is actually getting better

I don’t feel any increase in pain afterwards or the next day that is anything more then delayed onset muscle soreness that goes away within a day or two and is in muscle and not joint pain.

The most difficult part is finding a healthy starting point and progressing yourself appropriately. Error on the side of caution the first time you do this stuff. If you do have any problems, try adding one new movement at a time so you can identify which is giving you problems

Unless it is a running or jumping activity most of these activities are meant to be slow and controlled.

You can alter the difficulty or amount of stress on the body by:

Adjusting the speed of the movement: slower=safer and generally more effective

Weight or resistance

Amount of range of motion you move through: Goal is to move through as much PAIN FREE range as possible with most people not taking advantage of moving through their full available range of motion. BUT the further you move into a stretch position the more vulnerable you are so be careful. Example: I may be fairly stable and strong lifting something up in front of me but that may not be the case when reaching out to the side or behind me so I may use more caution when doing activities in those stretched positions.